problem with drop shadow

this is my introduction and my first questions (before to give up with gimp)
iam entering to this gimp world with the mind veeeeeery open toward to learn this program that i have kept away from me for several years...

why? some times i want to do things by myselft more than what my patience and time can stand....

when i first tried gimp (i was 12yo...) the first time i saw its interface in front of me, i felt heat and everything like in sepia.... i close it and uninstalled it

i tried some 5 years after that... this time i did couple of steeps farther... i copied an image and then pasted it..... then i copied a second smaller image and i pasted it over the previous one... then i didnt knew how to select ONLY the recently pasted one (without mention the bunch of window that gimp already opened for thes two images....)

i close it an uninstalled it....

now.. some years later... i am trying again

i want to add a watermark over a photo, and i want to add a shadow to that watermark.....
after 3 hours of intense work i was able to do that simple thing... but i am stuck with the shadow.. nor the gimp is corrupted or i am doing it wrong... but when i select for a shadow.. the shadow is perfect.. BUT OVER the image/object (i dont know how the fk is called in gimp.. object, image, layer... ????)

so my very simple and plain question is
HOW DO I MAKE THE SHADOW TO APPEAR behind THE OBJECT INSTEAD OVER IT?

the object i had there was "floating" and i had to erase the shadow, converte the floating object to "layer" then to create the shadow again

dont get fooled by my language, i could look like i have some experience manipulatin images and it is not, i am cero with this.
i started from 0 (paint was my only tool for years) to this this position in 5 hours... i learn quick and very complex things VERY EASY but one of my major blockage for my learning is when i found weird unobvious and not logically named things...
if i a says that, then i should be away of Linux environment because it is FILLED with that kind of stuff (sorry, but yes, weird not logically named things) .

what i am talking about!?
i spent 20 intensive minutes just looking how to resize an inserted image....! come on guys..
what i do, when i design a project it is always in mind oriented to somebody with common language and with no experiencia... making honor and practically following letter by letter what Einstein said "if you are unable to explain it so your grandmother can understand it.. then you dont master it" thats my rule.. and believe me... it works and gives back A LOT!

back to the matter...
why does this kind of stuff slow down the "progress"
Because i first had to learn that the image is named "layer" (thats ok, other software names it layer too..)....thats tiime i coudl ahve spent in the "thing"..... ( it is like to spend a week to learn how to use a screw driver while the tear down of the transmission was in 2 hours.....)
but then after digging the whole software was when i figure it out that the "resize" word is not used, instead it is name "...to scale..." come on guys!!! didnt the developer of this never went out to hear how people talk? did he?.. i am not talking about being colloquial, i love professionalism but that kind of things slow down the forward movement because you have to RELEARN things.... that were already learned.....

i added the shadow to the layer, selecting the layer and right click, filters, lighting... bla bal bla.... shadow...

ok, i am clear with that..

when i used pain i use to handle bmp files because the pixels use to remain in tact, i have a logo that i wanted to place over an image but the logo is surrounded by white, i cropped pixel by pixel in paint, but the logo is within a white box..

i dont know how... but i was able to select ONLY the logo and to cot and paste over the image.. but there are those tiny white pixels at the border of the logo... how do i get rid of them?

i google it and many one refers to a blending option that my gimp (latest) does not have.. what can i do?

(sorry for th English, it is not my native language.... so i am learning it too

let me see if i uderstand...
when first i opened gimp... i was painting and i selected the textures (that gimp calls patters)

after hours with a almost 90 degree climb to learn to use this.... i decide to try inan "empy/fresh,new...." whatever gimp calls it to not ruin the couple of [pixels i have modified in gimp....

when i hit menu and hit gimp for opening another.... whatever.... then it closes the current one!

i didnt know that the gimp icons behaves like a switch.. on - off
you click once, it opes the program.. you click again... the already opened program closes...

you could imagine my face after 6 hours....

99% of the widnows apps behave this way:
you click again in the app icon, and the app opnes a new same windows...
or second option... you click on the app icon... and doe snothing.. thats for app that does not support or have no sense having two windows open at the same time....
example for the first one...: paint, calc, word, ie, a lot..
example for the second...: an antivirus, a game.....

despite one being black and the other being white...
when i hit "create new layer" which is the difference between foreground... and background?

In Gimp there are two colors that can be used to paint things, the foreground (black by default) and the background (white by default). They can of course be changed to your liking, and are usually displayed in the toolbox:

The FG/BG naming is a convention, it could as well be Color 1 and Color 2. In practice the paint tools use the first (because you usually paint a foreground object over a background) and some operations that require a default background color use the second (saving to JPEG, etc...).

(Sep 29, 2014 08:37)ofnuts Wrote: Naming logic is in the eye of the beholder.

- an image is what you see... in Gimp it is the composition of layers. When you load a "flat" image in Gimp, it is loaded as a single layer, so image==layer. But add some text to it, and you get a second layer... the final image is no longer made of a single layer.

- "resize" is ambiguous... are you shrinking the image (scale), cutting extra stuff (crop), or extending the image to fill it with additional layers (canvas size)?

All this vocabulary is there for a reason, and isn't exclusive to Gimp or Linux, Photoshop and others use essentially the same terms. Advanced images editing applications are based on concepts that may not be obvious, but are nevertheless quite simple, and you have to grasp them to use the application efficiently.

Thank you for your answer guys!

you surprise me, because your kindness and your willingness to help this kid lol

(Sep 29, 2014 08:53)ofnuts Wrote: Gimp icons behave like all other program icons... and in Linux when you click on an application icon it the system bar, it toggles the visibility of the application.

You can have one single Gimp application with several windows working on several images. When you start Gimp, if there is already an instance of the application running, the instances "merge" by default (this minimizes memory consumption). There are way force Gimp to open a separate instance, but this is rarely useful (you can easily transfer things between images opened in the same application, this is no longer possible if they are in distinct ones).

i understand what you says...

but my gimp (2.8) when i clicked the gimp icon, it closed the gimp already was opened!

i am calm again, yesterday i was able to advance, something, i was using gimp just to get some effects once done, to copy and paste it on my Paint windows... , but since i have to prepare different samples (i am designin a webpage for a company of a friend.... all i have is a good taste lol ut no experience drawing... and small experience handly software like ACDSee and mastering MS Paint.. nothing else.

so i decide it to move the whole work to Gimp, i will give it my vote, so i am procceding slowly to prevent any data loss, (if i save evverything i am doing in gimp's default format file, will everything remain as i left it (as layers that i can manipulate, or will be converted in a solid image file where all has been... (i dont know what is the term, for a image that already has been "sealed" and can no longer modify the shadow beause the shadow is no longer a layer, its part of the image... what is the name for that?) i have experience editing video.... when you are working an unfinished video project..., you save it as a project file, is there something similar in gimp?

i know there are other mre appropiate tools for web designing... but ia m not planing to do de web with gimp, i want to make the design, a "draw" then i will pass it to the guy in charge of that in the company while i tell him "do the page like this".

(Sep 29, 2014 22:17)ofnuts Wrote: In Gimp when you "Save" (as in File>Save) it indeed saves a project (XCF file) which keeps all the layers, channels, selections, paths... and you can continue working with it as if you didn't stop. "Flat" formats (JPG, PNG...) are obtained with File>Export, and when you export the image is still marked "unsaved" internally and if you leave Gimp you'll be remembered to save the image first.

awesome...!

i am thinking about using Gimpshop.. i know photoshop is more intuitive and thats why gimpshopexist...
but since i am tew on this.. i guess it would be the sme to learn one or another.. do you guys recomment me to continue learning gimp as it is... or to use gimpshop?

i am currently using gimp with a Single-window mode.. so it is more organized the view for me..

i want to draw a poligon and to give it a color and to create a second poligon to put it in fornt of the other and to create a shadow of it..
how do i do that?

i was experimenting the "path" tool...
what is its purpose despite seeing funny curved lines? how do i gave it a color, how do i close the figure (i can not join the finish point wiht the start point... (using the common sense to trying to get along .....)

i want to have a rectangle that acts like a blurred glass... is that possible?

(Sep 30, 2014 20:06)ofnuts Wrote: For a rectangle use the rectangle selection.

is that "rectangle select tool" ?

(Sep 30, 2014 20:06)ofnuts Wrote: . Bucket fill it on anew layer

what is that? where is that? what is bucket fill? where is it?
on a new layer?

(Sep 30, 2014 20:06)ofnuts Wrote: For the Path tool, you can close the path this way: on the last point, depress the Control key, then move the mouse to the first point (when you are close enough you get two little intertwined circles next to the pointer), then click. To get a selection from the path use "Select>From path".

ok i got this...
and how do i "solidify" that path, because that path is useless, how do i convert that path in a solid line o r whatever?

(Sep 30, 2014 21:38)ofnuts Wrote: Because it's implemented as a script. Making your own drop shadow "manually" is very easy and can be done much more interactively.

implemented as scrip... ahy? why is different of other effect by this?
what you mean with adding the drop shadow "manually"
could be easy and more interactive.. but i think what we need here is practicality.

that in fact i see another odd, when you "do something" like to draw a line...
if you have to se how does it looks in another color, you have to draw it again, while it would be intuitive and more logical that.. if the "line" is still selected... it should be matter of just clicking a color then the drawn line change to that color (just like paint and many other tool work)

i was "able" to draw the rectangle and to "fill" it with the desired color, but to test with different color i have to draw again and to fill again, the easier way was to go back and to draw it again but in different color....